Motherhood – Processing Life’s Chapters and Transitions

Finding resilience in our life chapters – where one chapter of our life is ending and the next one is about to begin, is an important transition. It’s that space where we need to catch our breath and process what’s happened before we jump in to the next chapter of our lives. ANTI Anti Aging coach Barbie Liss calls this blank chapter “The Spaces Between.”

We’re in a society that’s very quick to say “keep going,” “brush it off,” “you’re fine,” “you’ve got this,” and sometimes there’s a bit of a whirlwind in our heads, as one chapter of our lives ends. That “space between” is the resilience to transition because there is a process to going from one chapter to the next.

Life Transitions

For moms there are so many. In the transition to becoming a mom, there’s a space between when you were either young and single, to now you’re married – or whatever your story– to now you have a kid. You’ve gone from being just you as a person, to now being the mom – that’s a huge transition. That takes a little bit of adjustment space.

There are spaces when milestones happen. When your kids are in school. Or your kids are finishing school and you’re an empty nester. Or maybe you’ve separated, divorced, or remarried. Whatever your story is, there’s one chapter that ends and one chapter that begins. Sometimes it’s what you wanted, and it’s beautiful and good. And sometimes it’s completely unexpected and you didn’t see it coming. But either way, there’s a grief process and a transition process that has to occur in order to be able to write your next chapter.

In those transition moments, you need to take care of you. You need to take care of your needs. This a big one for moms – you’re allowed to have needs. Your needs are equally as important as anyone else’s needs. You need to honor yourself.  Understand what it is that you require. What it is you need to release. What it is you need to process through in order to move forward into the next chapter. That’s where your resilience lies.

It’s a process that you shouldn’t rush. For some people it could be an hour, it could be a week or it could be a few years for something really traumatic in your life that you have to get over. We’re told to stand up and brush it off. That’s actually not strength. It’s avoidance. It takes so much strength to sit in it and process it. There’s no timeline because everybody’s journey looks different. Do what you have to do, so you come out a more empowered version of you.

About the Author: Barbie Liss is the ANTI Anti-aging life coach who works with women to shed shame and shift perspectives around aging. As Mom to three amazing adult humans, her personal story is one of healing and self-reclamation following a toxic marriage and the secondary trauma experienced after her daughter’s assault. She embraces the knowing that endings offer beginnings, and offers her clients a loving space to become all that they are here to become – to claim their Voice, Value and Power with empowered resilience through all of life’s chapters. Find Barbie on Instagram @_barbieliss or at her website wwww.barbieliss.com.